Texas jobless rate up, hovers near national average

Published 7:00 pm, Saturday, July 18, 2009

AUSTIN (AP) - The national recession continues to take a toll on Texas, pushing the state's unemployment rate up to 7.5 percent in June - two points below the national jobless rate.

The state's unemployment rate in May was 7.1 percent, but Texas lost 40,600 nonagricultural jobs in June.

The hardest-hit industries were trade, transportation and utilities, which dropped 21,700 jobs last month. Professional and business services saw 11,900 jobs disappear.

"While the national economic recession is having an adverse effect on employment here in Texas, our state unemployment rate remains far below the national rate," Texas Workforce Commission Chairman Tom Pauken said in a statement.

The national unemployment rate is 9.5 percent.

Although Texas' jobless rate is the highest it has been since January 1993, the state is still doing better than many. Michigan, for example, with its battered auto industry, had an unemployment rate above 15 percent - the highest in the nation.

Pauken said his agency is committed to helping out-of-work Texans find new jobs.

The bright spots -the strongest industries for growth - remained in education and health services, which reported no job losses last month and 57,300 new jobs since June 2008.

Financial service activities and leisure and hospitality industries reported small gains last month with 1,000 and 900 new positions, respectively.

Consequently, Jeanie Wyatt, chief executive officer of San Antonio-based South Texas Money Management, has a more optimistic outlook.

"We think the economy is showing very substantial signs of improving," said Wyatt, whose company of investment managers advises clients on economic trends.

She saw the slight gains in some industries as proof that things were looking up overall.

"If you're going from a recession to an up or flat and improving economy, that's what you'd expect: The service jobs would move first," Wyatt said, forecasting "good news" for the second half of the year.

"Unemployment is a lagging indicator," she explained. "It shows where the economy has been not where it's going."

Positive indicators like the stock market and consumer confidence are a better measure of the economy's future and weigh more heavily in her analysis, she said.

"The one negative we're keeping a close eye on are gasoline prices at the pump," Wyatt added. "If gas prices continue to go up that could cause us to modify our outlook."

Downey, the workforce commission analyst, said the main thing this month's rising unemployment rates shows is that Texas' economy is mirroring the nation's, "we are in line with what's happening in the U.S.," she said.

Amarillo experienced the lowest unemployment rate at 5.7 percent, not seasonally adjusted. The highest rate was in the McAllen-Edinburg-Mission area at 11.1 percent.

Unemployment rates are adjusted for seasonal trends in hiring and firing, which most economists believe gives a better picture of the job market.

Without the seasonal adjustment, the Texas unemployment rate jumped to 8 percent in June from 6.9 percent in May and 5.1 percent a year ago.

Following are the preliminary June jobless rates for local areas in Texas, with revised May numbers in parentheses. The local figures are not seasonally adjusted.